Danger in the Lords

Opponents of an elected House of Lords have been flexing their muscles in the last few days. Yesterday, Archie Hamilton, a Tory peer and former chairman of the 1922 Committee, and a sceptic of the coalition’s plans for an elected Lords, put down a manuscript amendment on the Financial Services Bill, on which the government was defeated. This means that the bill will have to go through a full committee stage.

This is just a little indication of how much more difficult the coalition could find getting its legislation through the upper house once the Lords reform debate has started in earnest. So much of the proceedings in the Lords is governed by convention, that it is far easier to delay the government there than in the Commons.

I also understand that 50 MPs, the vast majority of them Conservative, who are sceptical of electing the second chamber went to the other place at lunchtime today for a meeting.